'The Days Between' and the Gospel of Jerry Garcia

Twenty years ago, during their annual Mardi Gras swing through the Oakland Coliseum, the Grateful Dead debuted their last great song "The Days Between." The song's haunting lyrics -- "the singing man is at his song, the holy on their knees" - poignantly symbolizes the special relationship that Grateful Dead devotees, known as Deadheads, have with the band, and especially with the late bandleader Jerry Garcia. So it is altogether appropriate that the most important week of the Grateful Dead's liturgical year is now called the Days Between, observed from August 1st to August 9th each year, spanning the dates of Garcia's birth and death respectively.

Although the Grateful Dead have come to symbolize the message and music of the 1960s, they toured together for 30 years and their music constantly evolved with the times. Fueled by their eclectic and improvisational fusion of American musical genres, they developed an extremely loyal and devout fan base that literally spent their lives following them from concert to concert -- city to city, state to state, and country to country. Deadheads collectively formed an intentionally itinerant community numbering in the tens of thousands, with their own rituals, customs, language, music, mythology, and economy. They flocked to Grateful Dead concerts to have mystical experiences and the ethereal sounds of Jerry Garcia's guitar often catapulted them into ecstatic trances. With Garcia as a reluctant leader of the hippie movement, the largest countercultural movement in American history, the Grateful Dead quickly evolved from a rock and roll band into a new religious movement.

Every religion struggles to redefine itself after the death of its charismatic founder. Often times, this process takes the form of establishing and edifying the authoritative scriptures and commentaries of the tradition. For Jerry Garcia, evangelizing did not happen through sermons or speeches, but rather through his concert performances. Accordingly, Garcia's numerous concert recordings endure as the foundational texts of the Grateful Dead canon.

The Grateful Dead were pioneers in concert sound and live recording, and encouraged their fans to proactively tape and distribute bootleg recordings of their concerts. This free exchange of bootlegged concert tapes is a radical idea at a time when popular musicians desperately cling to and monetize every vestige of their sound and image. For Deadheads, concert bootleg tapes are not just musical but also autobiographical, as each tape is accompanied by a story or memory about the show or the recording. Indeed, for the vast network of Grateful Dead tape collectors and traders, concert tapes are both the scriptural texts and the sacred relics of their religion.

The power to effectively disseminate a religious message or spiritual teaching has always been a function of technology. Whereas ancient religions transmitted their theology through the spoken word and medieval religious traditions utilized the printed word, new religious movements spread their message through transnational media. With the evolution of digital music technology and online platforms, the music of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead can be instantaneously streamed or downloaded anywhere around the world.

Additionally, through the meticulous process of digitizing, indexing, restoring, and archiving Grateful Dead concert recordings, the musical gospel of Jerry Garcia continues to spread. Indeed, the Grateful Dead Archive Online at the University of California, Santa Cruz, ensures that generations to come will experience the Grateful Dead through the interdisciplinary lens of research scholarship. And the surviving members of the Grateful Dead have recently released several stunning box sets featuring soundboard concert recordings from arguably the three best Grateful Dead tours ever -- Europe 1972, May 1977, and Spring 1990.

The 20th century gave birth to a number of popular recording artists who inspired cult followings by not only defining their musical genres but also creating them. More than musicians, they were also spiritual icons and they viewed their music as sonic theology, thereby blurring the lines between their biographies and hagiographies. Jerry Garcia is firmly entrenched in this pantheon of virtuosos, joining the likes of John Coltrane, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Tupac Shakur. This week, during the Days Between, as Deadheads around the world memorialize the life and legacy of Jerry Garcia, they celebrate him as a guru as well as guitarist, saint as well as singer, a reticent redeemer and psychedelic prophet who challenged each of them "to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe."

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Jews and The Grateful Dead

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"Blues for Challah: Second Set," the second-annual Grateful Dead Shabbat at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, will take place at the end of November.
For a wonderful essay on this phenomenon, read Douglas M. Gertner's "Who were the Grateful Dead and why were they always following Jews around?"

Interspersed throughout the slideshow is a Jewish version of the grateful dead folktale, which was read at the retreat. "The Grateful Dead" is from "Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World" by Howard Schwartz (slide 1 of 5)
The Book of Tobit, an apocryphal text originally written in Hebrew but never included in the Jewish canon, is one of the earliest known uses of the grateful dead motif.

Let my inspiration flow
in token lines suggesting rhythm
that will not forsake me
till my tale is told and done
While the firelight's aglow
strange shadows in the flames will grow
till things we've never seen
will seem familiar ...
The storyteller makes no choice
soon you will not hear his voice
his job is to shed light
and not to master
...from "Terrapin Station," lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry GarciaPhoto taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"...there’s lots of souls of the world out there that need light. And that’s what we’re supposed to do in this world is spread light."
-- Rabbi Moshe Shur, who will lead traditional services at the Blues for Challah retreat in addition to giving a talk titled, "Jerry, Shlomo, and Me: Tales from the Golden Road"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast crushed may rejoice."
-- Psalm 51

A Jewish version of the grateful dead folktale, which was read at the retreat. "The Grateful Dead" is from "Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World" by Howard Schwartz (slide 2 of 5)
Here is another version of this story.

Wake up to find out
that you are the eyes of the World
but the heart has its beaches
its homeland and thoughts of its own
Wake now, discover that you
are the song that the morning brings
but the heart has its seasons
its evenings and songs of its own
...from "Eyes of the World," lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry Garcia

"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world."
“Jews are interested in liminal states. … psychedelic culture is very much of that. It’s the space between the physical and the spiritual.”
-- Daniel Sieradski, 33, who will lead a talk at Blues for Challah titled "The Forbidden Tree of Knowledge: Psychedelics & the Bible." Sieradski, a web designer and organizer of Occupy Judaism, is working on a book about the topic.

"If you cannot concentrate when you pray,
search for melodies and choose a tune you like.
Your heart will then feel what you say,
for it is the song that makes your heart respond."
-- Sefer Hasidim, found in Mickey Hart's "Spirit Into Sound: The Magic of Music"

A Jewish version of the grateful dead folktale, which was read at the retreat. "The Grateful Dead" is from "Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World" by Howard Schwartz (slide 3 of 5)
Here is another version of this story.

Look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
this is all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago ...
Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
A a box of rain will ease the pain
and love will see you through ...
It's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
But it's just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone
and a short time to be there
...from "Box of Rain," lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Phil Lesh
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"Such a long long time to be gone, and a short time to be there." -- "Box of Rain," lyrics by Robert Hunter
"That song, for one thing, resonates at the same level, for me, that the Shema does. So when I hear that song, it’s the same -- I get the same reaction. The Shema for me is a very powerful piece and it has always been with me, even when I was away from Judaism."
-- Leah Chava “Hobbit” Reiner, 51 (pictured), will lead a class at the Blues for Challah retreat on Grateful Dead lyrics as sacred text.
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

But I'll get back
on my feet someday
The good Lord willing
if He says I may
'cause I know the life I'm
livin's no good
I'll get a new start
live the life I should...
I'll get up and fly away
I'll get up and
fly away...
...fly away
...from "Wharf Rat," lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry Garcia

A Jewish version of the grateful dead folktale, which was read at the retreat. "The Grateful Dead" is from "Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World" by Howard Schwartz (slide 4 of 5)
Here is another version of this story.

She had rings on her fingers and
bells on her shoes,
And I knew without askin' she was
into the blues
Scarlet begonias
tucked into her curls
I knew right away
she was not like other girls--
other girls ...
I ain't often right
but I've never been wrong
It seldom turns out the way
it does in the song
Once in a while
you get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right
...from "Scarlet Begonias," lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry Garcia

"Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right."
"...to progress as a woman in Judaism, you need to be outside the box. ... 'Scarlet Begonias' has always reminded me of that."
--Rikki SaNogueria, 25, Program Coordinator for the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, host of Blues for Challah, a Grateful Dead Shabbaton
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"Music has many sides. It can seduce or frighten you. It can rattle your bones. It can let you see God."
-- Mickey Hart in "Spirit Into Sound: The Magic of Music"
Photo: Legendary drummer Mickey Hart jumps at the end of a six minute drumming session for Rock the Rhythm, Beat the Odds, a giant drum circle event at the College of the Canyons Cougar Stadium in Santa Clarita, Calif., Friday, May 18, 2012. More than 7,200 sixth and seventh graders from all five districts of the Santa Clarita Valley school district and some 4,000 community members participated to get the Guiness Book of World's Records for the largest drum circle. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A Jewish version of the grateful dead folktale, which was read at the retreat. "The Grateful Dead" is from "Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World" by Howard Schwartz (slide 5 of 5)
Here is another version of this story.

Dark star crashes
pouring its lightinto ashesReason tattersthe forces tear loosefrom the axisSearchlight castingfor faults in theclouds of delusionshall we go, you and IWhile we can?Through
the transitive nightfall of diamondsMirror shattersin formless reflectionsof matterGlass hand dissolvingto ice petal flowersrevolvingLady in velvetrecedesin the nights of goodbyeShall we go,you and IWhile we can?Throughthe transitive nightfallof diamonds
Photo: The Dead perform at the Izod Center on April 28, 2009 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Cory Schwartz/Getty Images)

"...if we receive communally light from each other, let’s transfer it back -- many fold. And add light to this world that needs a lot of light. So I give you a blessing that we all are, as it were, light-givers. And we should transfer the light of ourselves, which is sometimes ignited through experience, through memory, through future, and we should transfer it to others."
-- Rabbi Moshe Shur, who will lead traditional services at the Blues for Challah retreat in addition to giving a talk titled, "Jerry, Shlomo, and Me: Tales from the Golden Road"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"In Judaism, we’re trying to live at that high. We’re trying to live and feel connected. And music is obviously the biggest connecter to whatever it is you’re trying to connect to."
-- Mordechai ‘Motti’ Shur, 22 (pictured), son of Rabbi Moshe Shur, who will lead traditional services at the Blues for Challah retreat in addition to giving a talk titled, "Jerry, Shlomo, and Me: Tales from the Golden Road"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"We pray with it,
Dance to it,
Sing and have fun with it,
We pass the day,
Drive the car,
Wash the windows,
Sip some wine,
We eat our meals,
Wash our clothes and
bury our dead with it."
-- Mickey Hart in "Spirit Into Sound: The Magic of Music"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

“I didn’t make this up, I assure you. If you read enough of all the classic texts, from Buddhism to Judaism, all the religions are really talking about rhythm-getting in time, in tune. Religion is really a tuning fork -- you’re reaching out for transcendence, and there’s something out there, perhaps a spirit -- and you’re trying to connect with the outside world … and that’s transformative in nature. There’s a trance that you get into. Think of chants, or your cantor reading from the Torah, all of these traditions. What they’re doing is giving up the breath, which is the holiest thing you really have to give up. On the breath comes the word, the sound, the vibration. So you’re vibrating and trying to connect with the other vibrations that are out there. I believe if there is a God, it’s a vibration. God is sound. I mean, I don’t sway towards the doctrines of any organized religion, but I will say that happiness is what real religion is all about -- trying to find personal happiness and a collective happiness. All religions have the same goal of happiness: They just have different ways of going about it, but it’s structured into different belief systems. I don’t mean to marginalize anyone’s God. There are a lot of them out there, but whose is the supreme? Who’s to say? But I know it has to do with some kind of a vibration. Most religions are basically the same in many respects. The words are different, the rituals are different, but they’re all looking for happiness, transcendence, love, joy, good families, a good life for themselves and others.”
-- Mickey Hart, in an article by Dan Sieradski for Lifestyles Magazine
Photo by Elliot Newhouse of Mickey Hart backstage at Madison Square Song in 1979

"Music is often the preferred medium for communication with the gods. Speech gains magical potency when it rides on a melody or rhythm. Sung prayers are more powerful than spoken ones."
-- Mickey Hart in "Spirit Into Sound: The Magic of Music"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

In November 2009, Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted a Grateful Dead Kabbalat Shabbat service, which featured a 30-page prayer packet (Google Doc) that included Grateful Dead songs, traditional Psalms and meditative readings based on the Grateful Dead's more mystical lyrics. In this photo, the traditional prayer for mourning is coupled with the Grateful Dead song "To Lay Me Down."
Read more about the Mourner's Kaddish and the concept of "the grateful dead" on BeingJewish.org.

"Our word religion comes from the Latin and means "to bind together." A working religion, then, might be one that binds together the many rhythms that affect us by creating techniques -- rituals -- that attempt to synchronize the three dances, the personal, the cultural and the cosmic. If the technique works, the reward is a new dimension of rhythm and time -- the sacred."
-- Mickey Hart in "Drumming at the Edge of Magic"
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

Photo taken at Blues for Challah: Second Set.

“…During the time of the prophets, there was no real formal worship service, and each person would pray in his own words. If a special prayer was needed to channel a particular level of spiritual energy, such a service could be led by one of the prophets or their disciples, who knew how to word the prayer to channel the required forces. It is for this reason that a prayer leader is called Chazan, from the same root as Chazon, meaning a prophetic vision.When prophecy ceased, however, this was no longer possible. A formal system of worship, including all of its mystical elements, had to be formulated…”
-- Aryeh Kaplan in "Meditation and the Bible"
Photo: In November 2009, Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted a Grateful Dead Kabbalat Shabbat service, which featured a 30-page prayer packet (Google Doc) that included Grateful Dead songs, traditional Psalms and meditative readings based on the Grateful Dead's more mystical lyrics.

"By reason of the voice of my sighing my bones cleave to my flesh."
-- Psalm 102
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

“The percussion creates a rhythm that allows one to get into a meditative state, which allows prophecy to happen in Jewish thought..." Read more at Relix.com.
Photo: Mickey Hart at the Ogden Theater in Denver.

"Ripple in still water / When there is no pebble tossed / Nor wind to blow..."
"...how can there be a ripple on still waters? And my sense is, that’s consciousness also, that’s having a thought. We have very busy minds full of these rippling thoughts but really it’s just coming up from really a very deep and peaceful place and if we can kind of meditate or get to a relaxed point where some of that noise can subside, you know, still waters run deep."
-- Alan Zoldan, who led a class at the first Blues for Challah Retreat on Jewish themes embedded in the lyrics of the Grateful Dead
Read a commentary on "Ripple and the Adon Olam" by Rabbi Barry Leff.

Photo taken at Blues for Challah: Second Set.

"I have called upon Thee, O LORD, every day, I have spread forth my hands unto Thee.
Wilt Thou work wonders for the dead? Or shall the shades arise and give Thee thanks? Selah
Shall Thy mercy be declared in the grave? or Thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But as for me, unto Thee, O LORD, do I cry, and in the morning doth my prayer come to meet Thee."
--Psalm 88

"Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine..."
-- "Estimated Prophet," words by John Perry Barlow, music by Bob Weir
Photo: Bob Weir (L) and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead attend the signing of 'Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978' at Best Buy on October 14, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

"Wharf Rat" is "very much connected to the Jewish concept of teshuva -- of repentance and return: It's never too late to get started on making things right again."
-- Daniel Sieradski, who will lead a talk at Blues for Challah titled "The Forbidden Tree of Knowledge: Psychedelics & the Bible."
Photo: From the first Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised at the end of November.

"Jerry first challenged me to wake up and notice the higher things in life. ... Reb Shlomo picked up the ball from there and introduced me to the depths of Torah. He touched me deeply because his own struggles were so evident."
...from Menashe Bleiweiss' essay "The Grateful Yid and the Grateful Dead: How Reb Shlomo Carlebach and Jerry Garcia
Serenaded the Jewish Soul" from the Winter '95-'96 edition of the Jewish Spectator.
Reb Shlomo (and his influence on people) was similarly compared to Jerry Garcia in a recent article by Shaul Magid in Tablet Magazine, "Carlebach's Broken Mirror."

Photo taken at Blues for Challah: Second Set.

"You shall meet a band of prophets, coming from a high place with harp, drum, flute and lyre, and they will be prophesying themselves."
-- 1 Samuel 10: 5
In November 2009, Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted a Grateful Dead Kabbalat Shabbat service, which featured a 30-page prayer packet (Google Doc) that included Grateful Dead songs, traditional Psalms and meditative readings based on the Grateful Dead's more mystical lyrics

"The yeshiva life put you in a box and then, when I heard the Dead, it was like, break out and meet God."
...from a story on the occasion of the first yahrzeit (death anniversary) of Jerry Garcia, as observed in Israel. (Aug. 23, 1996, Jewish Daily Forward, unavailable online)

"I think Judaism is really hip about being in the moment. We have the Shabbat every week to refocus what the holiness of time is. What it means. To not think about the next step. Not to think about the step from before, but to experience the now -- the moment. And improvising is a little bit like that in the sense that … well, improvising is sort of like in that in the sense that you’re responding right now -- you’re experiencing what you can do right here, right now. You do take some time to think about where else you can go, I guess, but once you’re actually improvising, things just sort of flow and just happen, and you’re responding to the very now. Maybe. For sure, for sure, it’s not to get to the last note of the song. And that’s very Jewish -- to learn how to, or to sanctify each moment for what it is. And that’s what Shabbat teaches us."
-- Yaakov Dov Miller, who will lead a jam session and discussion about the Dead at the Blues for Challah retreat
Photo: In November 2009, Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted a Grateful Dead Kabbalat Shabbat service, which featured a 30-page prayer packet (Google Doc) that included Grateful Dead songs, traditional Psalms and meditative readings based on the Grateful Dead's more mystical lyrics

Thou didst turn for me my mourning into dancing;
Thou didst loose my sackcloth, and gird me with gladness;
So that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent;
O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever.
-- Psalm 30
Photo taken at the first-ever Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised this year.

"There is a silent minority ... of otherwise unobjectionable aesthetes who, as “Grateful Dead” has become a historical record, rather than a living creative enterprise, have found themselves rekindling a fascination with the band’s recorded legacy. These are the tapeheads, the geeks, the throngs of workaday Phil Schaaps, who approach the band’s body of work with the intensity and the attention to detail that one might bring to birding, baseball, or the Talmud." --Nick Paumgarten in the New Yorker
Photo: When I was getting ready to go in and see the Jerry Garcia Band's Halloween performance at the Lunt Fontanne just off of Times Square, I saw this scene unfolding outside of the box office. Bill Graham was in a kind of Road Warrior costume and he was being very clear about something to the young man to the right. It probably involved explaining that no audio recorders would be allowed in the show. The followers of The Grateful Dead were usually permitted to tape the shows. But Jerry Garcia Band shows were different because there were other artists involved. And this show was eventually put on CD and sold too. Without a doubt, the recording ban was strictly enforced. As I was walking into the lobby, there was a man standing by the doors with a very loud bull horn. He was repeating, over and over, loud and clear, that if you were caught with an audio recorder, you would be thrown out of the show. So, after I sat down at my seat, I look behind me and someone is setting up a very expensive looking portable recorder. I did manage to bring my camera in, but I don't remember if that was hard or not. But I asked the guy behind me with the recorder if I could give him my address and phone number and I would love to give him some photos if I could get a tape of the show. And he nodded OK, and I proceeded to write down my info. When I turned around, his seat was empty. I never saw him again.

Poster from the first Blues for Challah retreat, which is being reprised at the end of November.
Read another story related to the phenomenon on Aish.com: "Shavuot and the Grateful Dead"

Jewish Deadheads

Harvey Milstein:Yes, This is my Tallis Bag....

From the Jews for Jerry Facebook group. Follow them on Twitter. Order pins at JewsForJerry.info.
(Interesting side note: This is Anne Coulter's favorite Grateful Dead button. She's a Deadhead, but not Jewish.)

From Smithsonian Folkways: "The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra of America and California was an itinerant band of engineers, doctors, teachers, and musicians who played their music at weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and other celebrations. Formed in 1976 by friends who shared a love of Yiddish, Russian, and Rom (Gypsy) music, the band was among the first of its kind to blossom in California..."
Mickey Hart produced the album. Visit his site for more info, including an oral history of the band.